iMac - My iMac Problem Story

I got my family an iMac G5 iSight for Christmas and they loved it until the last week... I came downstairs and saw on the log in screen all this crazy black writing that said "Kernall something" and rebooted. When I did all that came up was a folder with a ? and finder mac blinking.

After calling Apple and going through some steps, it turns out something had corrupted my hard drive and a service rep was sent to my house. He came this morning and replaced the hard drive. When trying to reinstall Tiger, it still didn't detect the new HD, so he calls Apple and then puts me on the phone (This service tech seemed a little sketchy and not all there mentally)

Apple told me to call a Apple Certified Center to take it in for repair since they could ship the parts over night to them. I live in a rural area and the closest one is 40 minutes away with the next being 2 1/2 hours away! When I called the one that was "close" the guy who owned the shop said "I don't want to have to deal with that"... he told me. and this is NO joke. that he refused to work on Macs because "Apple doesn't pay me that much." His only solution was to call Apple again!

When I called Apple, they said it was a disgrace and that that Apple Certified Center will be contacted and could lose it's certification. :headphone

They are now sending extra parts to build a new iMac for a service rep to come to my house. But this has been a total nightmare! I know it wasn't Apple's fault, but this service seeking has been a nightmare. I asked the person from Applecare what happens if the next rep can't repair the computer and they stated "other options."

Last time I had a REAL major problem with Apple service, I got a brand new Powerbook out of the deal (long story). Has anyone else had somethinglike this happen?